High voltage electrical equipment is inherently dangerous, thus manufacturers of such equipment take precautions in designing the equipment to reduce the hazards presented thereby. Of particular concern in the design of such equipment is the safety of personnel who are required to work on such equipment. One area which personnel must routinely encounter is the fuse mounting and enclosure area. The fuses are replaceable circuit elements which must be readily removed and replaced in the circuit, thus necessitating opening and closing the circuit in what may be an energized condition. In as much as live parts are necessarily present at or near the fuse, these elements are oftentimes enclosed within protective cabinets. In some instances these cabinets have been made from metal with non-conductive barriers interposed therewithin. The present invention and its predecessors are of a particular genre known as "dead front" switchgear. Previous designs have utilized mounting panels which have supported the fuse elements in a common enclosure with an electrical contact, with the panel pivotally mounted such that the entire panel carrying the fuse pivoted 180.degree. about a horizontal axis to position the fuse in a circuit open or circuit closed position. A complex linkage arrangement was used to actuate the mechanism, thus it was somewhat cumbersome. Further, the panel had to rotate the full 180.degree., otherwise personnel working on the switchgear would have an unreliable barrier between themselves and a live high voltage terminal.